I’m often asked how I know so much about tools available to help in the language classroom. The honest answer is that I don’t carry this knowledge around in my head. I think that I have learned to read the online landscape and if I see something I like, I know that there are a number of things I can do to find out more and see if it is something I can implement in my own classes. I have become a tool detective.
Scanning the landscape
Finding out what is available is the first major task. Start with your colleagues and see what they recommend but also consider following relevant people on Twitter or Facebook. For example by following The Consultants-E’s wall on Facebook you will be alerted to many useful articles and websites about using digital technology in language teaching. You could also try following blogs such as Nik Peachey’s and Larry Ferlazzo‘s.
What’s in a name?
If you see something you like one of the simplest things to do is to take a note of the name and stick it in a search engine. Often it is sufficient just to add .com to the name and that will take you straight to the site. You could try this right now by working out which tool was used to make the slideshow below.
Download or online?
More and more useful digital tools are used while online. This is called cloud computing and basically means that you process and/or store your files online. For example, graphic designers swear by Photoshop, an expensive and difficult program to learn which also uses a great deal of computing power when you have it running. But most people only use a small proportion of the features of Photoshop and you can now have many of those features for free using either an online service such as Picnik (now part of Picasa) or a free downloadable program such as Paint.net.
Free
Most of the best tools have a free edition which means that you can try it out at no cost and discard it if you find that it doesn’t suit you for whatever reason. In order to get the most benefit out of these tools you often need to register. This means that you can store videos, slideshows, articles or whatever it is that you are creating. Normally you should only be asked for a valid email address and a username and password which you choose. Often your real name is also required but you shouldn’t need to give away any more information than that. Be suspicious of sites which require more. If you are concerned about unleashing a stream of spam or junk mail then consider setting up an email address especially for these free tool signups. Another possibility is offered by Yahoo mail where you can set up individual disposable email addresses. These will not be memorable but you can create up to 500 of these disposable addresses, the idea being that if a company starts misusing your email and sending you lots of junk mail then you can delete that address painlessly without affecting your other subscriptions.
So in summary, find out what you’d like to try, be pro-active in finding out which tool has been used when you see something you like, consider whether you prefer to have a program on your computer or to work ‘in the cloud’ and then take steps to protect yourself from email spam once you start signing up to several tools.
Oh.. and the answer to my little quiz? Well the tool gets a mention somewhere in this post anyway.